A man carries a woman in his arms — one arm under her legs and the other supporting her back like a groom carrying his bride. It usually denotes or foreshadows a romantic relationship between the characters or a major difference in their physical strength or both. It's also called a princess carry.

Examples

A bonus strip for Christmas has America complimenting Lithuania on his stripping skills and then carrying him bridal style to Poland's house.

Fanart for Hungary also include a gender reversal: namely her carrying Austria away bridal-style. Sometimes with Austria wearing the dress. OTOH, there are also arts with Austria trying to carry Hungary like this, but he can barely lift her off her feet.

In canon Hungary has never carried Austria like this, but she does pick up somebody else in her arms: the teenaged Holy Roman Empire, an Ill Boy afflicted with a Soap Opera Disease (implied to come from the progressive debilitation of the HRE lands under all of the in-fighting between the Germanic states).

In most US/UK fan-fictions America at one point or another has to carry England Bridal style. He's also seen doing this to Japan.

Sufin fanarts sometimes have Sweden do this to Finland.

Berserk: Guts scoops up a battle-exhausted and initially bashful Casca in his arms after the Battle of Doldrey so that he can carry her to see Griffith. It says much about the romantic significance of this gesture that although he's given piggyback rides to other females who needed carrying, such as Princess Charlotte, Casca is the only one who he has ever swept off her feet like this.

Horribly used when Ran, Conan, Sonoko, Sonoko's sister Ayako and Ayako's friends see a mysterious bandaged man carry a kidnapped girl away in his arms, right before the girl's mutilated body is found. It was a stage trick with a doll, piano wire... and the woman's already decapitated head.

In another episode, Ran is carried like this by the killer of the week, who has drugged her and is about to try drowning her to have an alibi.

Again in the flash back to New York case with Shinichi carrying Ran away after they saved a disguised Vermouth's life.

In the Crowning Moment of Awesome of Genta from Movie 5 Haibara intends to sacrifice herself to allow the gang to escape the bombed tower by counting the time bomb until the end. However she's stopped by Genta of all people who dashes to her and carries her back to the car they intended to use to escape. He also gives her a speech that roughly means "everyone life is important and we won't let you left behind!". He's not The Big Guy for nothing!

Occurs once with Satoshi and Daisuke in D.N.Angel. Daisuke fell ill at school and Satoshi carried him to the infirmary. And Dark generally does this to the girls that he rescues.

In the final episode of Eureka Seven, Renton carries Eureka this way in space when they kissed each other for the 2nd time. After a year, they officially became husband and wife in the Thurston family register.

In Fairy Tail, Natsu carries Erza this way after saving her from the exploding Tower of Heaven. In a later arc, Elfman and Evergreen get gravely injured in a battle, and Elfman bridal carries the unconscious Evergreen back to the camp.

Ichika does this to Houki to help her get into the IS suit. Houki becomes quite happy when he does this for her.

He does this again with Houki at the end of episode 12, after sharing an Almost Kiss with her, right before being chased by the other four girls in the harem, who are very angry that she's way ahead of them with Ichika.

We see this in InuYasha among with male leads carrying their female love interests; Inuyasha carries Kagome and Miroku carries Sango. There are also a few cases where Kagome finds herself in the arms of Kouga in this manner.

Itazura Na Kiss: Naoki carries out Kotoko like this a lot when she's sick or injured, for example as she faints in the street and Naoki has to take her to the hospital.

Jewelpet Happiness: Kousuke's grandfather met his wife Kasumi when she saved him from drowning in this fashion.

Lady Jewelpet: used a lot, and often an Invoked Trope. Episode 4 is entirely about the Petit Ladies having to pass a test about being "princess-carried" (for this is how the show calls it). In episode 16, Charon forces Levin to carry her around like this because she wants to use the trope in her novel. In episode 18, Lillian thinks the present test is going far too smoothly, so she stages a fall for Romeo to catch her like this.

After Misaki sprains his ankle while escaping from captivity, Usami carries him away this way, in front of his brother and their servants. Later, he's carrying Misaki piggyback, and Misaki complains it feels silly, prompting Usami to ask "would you rather be carried like a princess?"

Once again Usami carries Misaki in this way to the bedroom after Misaki's attempt to seduce him in chapter 21.

In Kamisama Kiss Tomoe carries Nanami like this when they first contracted. He later does it again after he saves her from Mizuki and when she falls from a ladder.

Hilariously inverted in chapter 11 of Karneval, where Eva carries a wounded Gareki (under the threat of being kissed if he doesn't comply) because he was staggering and slowing their progress. He's not happy about it.

Tsuna in his Hyper Dying Will Mode carries Kyoko like this while rescuing her from Tazaru's attack.

In Komatta Toki Ni Wa Hoshi Ni Kike this seems to be Kiyomine's preferred carrying method when carrying Takara, he uses it whenever Takara has hurt himself, can't walk by himself, or just to annoy him; at first it embarrassed Takara, but as time went on, he got used to it, to the point of it being natural.

Kyo Kara Maoh!. There are a few times in which Yuri was carried and/or caught from falling a long distance like this. Probably because he's usually a male Damsel in Distress when he's not in Maoh-mode. He carries Wolfram this way one time during that one episode in the snowstorm.

The aftermath of Nanoha and Fate's final battle in the first season, with Nanoha carrying the beaten Fate in this manner.

The light novel version of the first season does it again, only this time, it's a picture of Fate carrying the beaten Nanoha as they gaze into each other's eyes.

Chapter 14 of the manga adaptation of the first season features Fate preforming this for Nanoha in a Big Damn Heroes moment when the damage dealt during their mock battle, combined with her low mana level, results in Nanoha falling off a tall building and almost crashing into some debris at the bottom.

Nanoha does this to Vita in Chapter 19.5 of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Vi Vid, as Vita had fallen asleep in the car while Nanoha was driving to Hayate's house for dinner. After waking up, a deeply embarrassed Vita screams "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" at the top of her lungs, while Nanoha tells her that she tried to wake her up but failed.

Erio and Caro have alternated in carrying each other bridal style in both the series and promotional material.

In the first episode, Kenshin saves Kaoru from a fake Battosai, and ends up sweeping her off her feet in this manner.

Later in the Kyoto Arc, Yumi (Shishio's mistress) objects to being carried over Sano's shoulder, so he asks sarcastically if she'd prefer to be carried bridal-style, using a straw dummy to demonstrate. (She doesn't.)

Harima from School Rumble does this to Yakumo when he (mistakenly) tries to steal her away from a wedding, which is really a photoshoot. Also, he thought she was her sister.

Sarutobi Sasuke does this three times in the Sengoku Basara anime: once in his Embarrassing Rescue of Kasuga (who gets so flustered that she ends up falling out of a tree trying to get away), again saving Yukimura from an explosion, and thirdly rescuing Oichi's body from the burning castle.

In the second season he's shown cradling an unconscious Kasuga in his lap this way.

This tends to happen a lot in Shugo Chara! with Ikuto and Amu. We have one where he does it - while she's in a wedding dress like outfit!

In Skip Beat!, Ren does this to Kyoko because she sprained her ankle. The villain of the day, Ruri, is quite angry about it. So is Kyoko.

In Shakugan no Shana, Yoshida summons Pheles to their location. The effort makes Yoshida woozy and she falls over, but Pheles catches her and holds her like this.

In Special A, Kei does this to Hikari frequently, referring to it as the "Princess Lift." He quite obviously does it as a sign of affection, which she completely misses. She's also a bit oblivious as to why this flusters her so much (except when she's sick, and she asks for it... completely forgetting that she did so afterwards).

In episode 2 of Steel Angel Kurumi 2, Kurumi carries Nako like this on the way to school. And in the last episode as well.

Hulkling sometimes carries Wiccan like this in Young Avengers. Not often, since Wiccan can fly, but occasionally.

Spider-Man: Appropriately enough, when Peter Parker and M.J. Watson came back from their honeymoon, he carried her across the threshold in one arm while balancing their suitcases in the other. MJ's reaction: "I always dreamed of being carried across the threshold, but one hand? That's class!"

Played straight in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 8, when an injured Oz carries an even worse injured Bayarmaa off the (still-raging) battlefield this way.

Genderflipped in the New Teen Titans books, where alien princess Starfire often flew around carrying her boyfriend Nightwing.

Dave Berg of MAD once made a strip about this trope. The bride asks the groom whether he'll carry her, and he replies that this is an obsolete custom from the time when men used to steal their brides. The bride thinks about it and then remembers that she actually "stole" him from "some tramp", and the strip ends with her carrying him.

In The Ultimate Evil, Shendu takes Valerie from her trashed apartment this way after she's nearly killed by Hak Foo.

Films — Animation

Double subverted in Shrek 2, where Shrek bashes Fiona into the doorframe, breaking right through the wall.

Delightfully spoofed via Gender-Inverted Trope in Monsters vs. Aliens. A cheerleader type is trying to seduce an athletic jock in a car when the alien robot crashes nearby, and we have a great shot of the girl running holding her boyfriend in her arms.

Not exactly "carrying", but Peter Pan catches Wendy a couple of times like this. Later, he does the same with Wendy's daughter Jane in the sequel Return to Neverland.

There are several examples in Robot Carnival: Starlight Angel has a flying scene with a robot and a girl; Deprive has a cyborg and a girl, etc., etc.

Toy Story 3 does this between Spanish Buzz and Jessie. He was saving her from falling trash.

In Treasure Planet, Dr. Doppler carried Captain Amelia to B.E.N.'s lair this way, with B.E.N. commenting on the implications.

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water has a gender-flipped version in the scene when the gang are on dry land and are crossing the road trying to avoid the bicyclists and skaters and Sandy carries Squidward in her arms to safety.

The Man with Two Brains. Twice. The first time, Dr. Hfuhruhurr waits hours in the pose for the photos to be developed before letting his new bride down, and then, in the finale, had problems carrying her through since, well, Anne had an eating problem when she had her own body. Hilarity Ensues, but it's a Heartwarming Moment because Hfuhruhurr doesn't care about her weight.

Friday Night Lights had Tim do this with his newly-paralyzed friend Jason, just so Jason could be out of his wheelchair for a little while. Jason comments that maybe he should just have Tim carry him everywhere from then on.

After Rocky marries Adrian in Rocky II he carries her all the way home from the church like this. When she tells him it's unnecessary, he says it's good for the arms.

Batman does this to Rachel in Batman Begins. The scene was also the basis for one of the film posters, in which it was not clear if Rachel was dying or merely unconscious.

One cute Plucky Middie gets carried by another sailor when he's injured.

When Lady Barbara gets sick, Captain Hornblower takes her into his arms and carries her below-deck.

In Lemonade Joe, Doug Badman carries his love Tornado Lou into her room when she fainted.

In The Long Long Trailer, the groom does this—and bumps her head on the doorframe. Also, because he's shy about their being newlyweds, he tells the other guests at the trailer park that she's twisted her ankle—and all the women start fussing over her.

Done in Love Story when Oliver and Jenny move into their new apartment. The doorman is initially concerned that something is wrong with Jenny, then delighted when they claim that they're newlyweds.

In The Force Awakens, after the villain Kylo Ren knocks out and captures the heroine Rey, he opts to carry her back to his ship this way. This is the first sign he's harboring a Villainous Crush on her.

Spectre Bond lifts Madeline Swann in his arms as they make their escape from the rigged Vauxhall building. The symbolism is cranked Up to Eleven by the fact that she's wearing a white coat.

A Brother's Price averts this - when Jerin finds a wounded soldier, who is unconscious at the time, he carries her over his shoulder. Played straight on the cover.

Anita Blake is shaken up by doing some "major magic" with a werewolf and drops her machismo long enough to let Jean-Claude carry her this way. Both think it's kind of romantic until Anita notices... something... about Jason's pants....

Now that he had won her, what was he to do with her? He was but an adult child, with the brain and brawn of a man, and the ignorance and inexperience of the new-born. And so he acted as a child acts, in imitation of what it has seen others do. The brute had been carrying the lovely creature, therefore that must be the thing for him to do, and so he stooped and gathered Virginia Maxon in his great arms.

When his wife is in the midst of an over-protective motherly rant, Retina utilizes this in combination with a "Shut Up" Kiss to remove her from the guild lobby and allow Tiza to continue her mission unhindered.

Tiza suffers a Power Strain Black Out in Ceiha and Nolien carries her in this fashion to someplace safer. When she wakes up, she uppercuts him because she doesn't like being treated like a Damsel in Distress. It's also embarrasing because of their UST

Julius Caesar shows off by carrying his bride Pompeia all the way from her home on the Palatine to his in the Suburba.

In Superheroes Anonymous this is called 'damsel carry' and how Blaze, Hostage Girl's very own superhero, always carries her after rescuing her from the latest Supervillain.

"The Rabbit Who Ate Las Vegas": Face carries Amy over the threshold of a hotel room while they're masquerading as a honeymoon couple. He sets her down quickly once the bellhop leaves and remarks that it's no wonder that he never married.

"Bad Time on the Border": Hannibal lifts Maria's mother Delia under her knees and shoulders as he carries her to the helicopter. Unlike in many cases, there is no intended romantic subtext; he's rescuing her to help her pre-adolescent daughter and she's too sick to walk.

In the episode "The One After Vegas", Monica and Chandler have decided they aren't ready to get married, but keep seeing "signs" that they should. At one point, Monica's hurt her leg, so Chandler gathers her up and carries her into her apartment, before they realise what they're doing.

Another episode had Ross and Rachel parodying An Officer and a Gentleman: Rachel kept having to go back for stuff, so in the end Ross just dumped her on the couch.

In "The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS", Chandler carries Monica into the hallway, but bangs her head against the doorframe.

Played with in an episode of Home Improvement when Jill insists that Tim carry her like this, unaware that he'd pulled a groin muscle earlier. It doesn't end well.

Inverted again in the last scene of the (intended)series finale which involves JD imagining scenes of what his future will be like, including getting married to Elliot, who bridal carries him.

Used in the prequel season 6 of Kaamelott. Guenièvre insists that Arthur carry her that way after their marriage "because it's romantic." Not just to go through a treshold, mind you, but as long as possible. After some long, agonizing minutes, Arthur finally drops her like a sack of potatoes as he gets exhausted and his back gives up.

When Anna of Chuck falls over and is in danger of being trampled during a store evacuation, Morgan runs heroically to her and carries her out of the shop in this manner, to cries of "What are you doing, Morgan? Put me down!" He has no answer when a fellow employee asks why he carried her out when she could have just walked.

A non-romantic example: the Fourth Doctor carried everyone in his arms, since at 6'3 he was almost always bigger than them.

The Tenth Doctor staggers down the hall with an unconscious Martha in "Smith and Jones". Since the crisis was over and he'd lost a litre or two of blood, you wonder why he made the effort.

In "Asylum of the Daleks", the Eleventh Doctor carries Amy this way after she faints from an invasion of Dalek nanogenes. Some fans took exception to this, and inverted the image.

Eleven does this to Clara in "the Name of the Doctor" after she falls unconscious from the strain of being split into thousands of echoes and scattered across the Doctor's timeline.

Dean does this to Jo in Supernaturalafter she is attacked by a hellhound.

In The Borgias, Cesare carries a sleeping Lucrezia to her bed after she passes out during her wedding reception.

Arthur from Merlin carries Morgana to the physician's quarters like this after she's hit her head after falling down a flight of stairs.

When Elizabeth Weir unexpectedly collapses on Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard carries her to the infirmary this way.

During the Stargate Universe episode where the Destiny is invaded by the Lucian Alliance, Eli has to carry a wounded Chloe this way. He jokes that this kind of exercises could easily get him to lose some weight and that they should do it more often.

There's some subtext here too, in that he is the Romantic Runner-Up who hasn't yet gotten over his crush on her.

The Daily Show got the armed forces to carry correspondents down office corridors on two occasions, to the tune of "Love lifts us up where we belong": Colbert by a Rear-Admiral, and Sam Bee by a Captain. The latter doubled as a Take That to the arguments that female soldiers' are physically too weak to be allowed active service.

"The Duchess and the Devil" from Horatio Hornblower has two sailors in this classic position, and it's Played for Drama. Horatio carries his friend Archie Kennedy in his arms when he realized that Archie has been starving himself. He tries to get help for him from Don Massaredo, the commander of the Spanish prison they're in. Conveniently, it's also raining and it looks very dramatic.

Wives and Daughters: An utterly tragic use of this trope: Squire Hamley carries his dead son Osborne in his arms. He died outside alone and he wants to bring him home.

This Stock Pose can be seen several times in Cranford; mostly with brides and grooms, but also when a father carries his ill daughter.

Happens in The O.C. pilot episode, when Marissa drinks until she is unconscious. Her friends ditch her in front of her house and after they leave, love interest Ryan carries her inside.

Again in the first season episode "The Escape" in which Marissa downs a bottle of sleeping pills with a shot of tequila after finding out that her parents were getting a divorce and her boyfriend Luke cheated on her. She stumbles into an alley and the episode ends with Ryan picking her up.

In the final episode of As Time Goes By, Alastair rings the bell with Judy in his arms because they are newlyweds and he's carrying "across every threshold we cross".

Amusingly subverted by Colin in London's Burning when he and his new bride Sonia are about to enter their honeymoon suite and he performs a Fireman's Carry instead, much to her amusement.

At the July Noches de ColiseoCarlito Colón backed off from Estrellita, who picked a fight with him for pulling down Hijo del Ninja's pants, but then took her up on the offer after Rico Rodriguez and Barbi Hayden had beaten her up, leading Hijo del Ninja to hurried carry Estrellita away from Colon in this manner.

Theater

In Paint Your Wagon, Ben, having married Elizabeth, tries to carry her over the threshold, but proves too drunk to pull it off.

The Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom carries Christine this way after she faints at the end of "The Music Of The Night". Thanks to her white dressing gown, this hints at his deepest desire and actually foreshadows the play's climax, where he dresses her in a wedding gown and tries to force her to marry him.

Video Games

Assassin's Creed. In the second game, Ezio has to carry Rosa to safety after she finally collapses from an arrow wound to her leg. After running and fighting with an arrow sticking out of her leg for quite a distance, mind you.

Musashi Samurai Legend has the titular hero do this with some of the damsels. While carrying them, however, he is restricted to two attacks: throwing said damsel into the air, performing a 360-degree slash, then catching them before they hit the ground, or smacking her into the enemy! Hilariously, it's possible to miss the catch, meaning you may spend some time actively dropping the damsel while trying to fight off your pursuers.

In The King of Fighters, Kensou carries an unconscious Athena in his arms in KOF'99. He does the same for Bao in KOF 2000.

In Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE, Cu Chulainn's mount animation consists of him carrying the player in this manner while looking into their eyes...regardless of gender.

In Tomb Raider (2013), Lara carries Sam like this while the latter's wearing a white dress. Needless to say, this does nothing to reduce the Les Yay they've shared throughout.

The Last of Us has Joel carry Ellie this way near the end of the game.

In Xenoblade, Shulk pulls an unconscious Fiora out of the wreckage of Face Nemesis, then carries her to shore in this manner. Made all the more impressive by the fact that:

In the cutscene just prior to this, he took a Mechon blade to the back, spending the remainder of the scene shaking in obvious pain and limping from various injuries sustained throughout the assault on Galahad Fortress, before diving what appeared to be several kilometers down after a falling Fiora

This is Shulk, Hollywood Nerd and bookish, weedy little guy, who at the game's start would have had trouble picking up and carrying Fiora at all, let alone after

Averted in Schlock Mercenary: Faced with a high-gravity environment, Tagon stretches out his arms to offer a ride to an unarmored female character this way. The female being a scientist, she declines-noting that while Tagon may be wearing Powered Armor, she'd be unprotected from the obvious effects of pressing against metal arms at increased gravity.

In El Goonish Shive, when Hedge carries Elliot away to The Nest after subduing him, he does so using this carry instead of the Over-the-Shoulder Carry as would be expected of a typical antagonist in that situation. While choosing this carry over the other one does not have the usual connotations in this case, it is one of the clues that Hedge is not actually evil and doesn't actually have malicious intentions toward Elliot.

Homer: I'm going to the back seat of my car with the woman I love, and I won't be back for TEN MINUTES!

Parodied again in a flashback when he tries to carry a very heavily pregnant Marge over the threshold and does his back in.

Wakfu: Sadlygrove carries Evangelyne this way thrice: on their very first encounter in episode 2, then in Eva's dream in episode 20, and again for real in episode 24 after he saves her from Desherboss.

Young Justice: Kid Flash rescues Artemis from firing tanks in "Bereft" and carries her like this.

Looney Tunes: Pepe Le Pew carries Penelope like this when she faints from exhaustion in "Little Beau Pepe".

Another cartoon had Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd get married (It Makes Sense in Context) and Bugs carries a bridal gown clad Elmer over the threshold, only to drop him off a cliff.

Gender inverted in the Total Drama World Tour episode "Slap Slap Revolution" where Izzy is seen carrying Noah around in this style after accidentally injuring him in a previous scene. True to his Non-Action Snarker status, Noah is perfectly fine with being carried and none of the other contestants comment on the two.

Invoked in the the wedding-themed "Niagara Brawls".

Kick Buttowski: Brad pulls off a literal version of this in "Bwar and Peace", where he's seen carrying his Viking bride around after their wedding.

Mako does this for Korra after she escapes from being held captive by Tarrlok and from almost being captured again by Amon. Done again later in a frantic attempt to escape Amon after Korra gets De-bended by him.

In The Smurfs special "Smurfily Ever After", when Smurfette imagines herself being married to Hefty, he carries her in a jog through the village to his house. Smurfette asks if he's doing this because he's so eager to be alone with her, and Hefty says he's doing this because it's good exercise.

In one of the opening sequences for the Spider-Man TV series of The '90s, Spider-Man is seen carrying Harry Osborn twice like this.

Danny Phantom, the title hero does this with Sam in the series finale after they had finally become a couple.

In Gargoyles, Goliath usually carries Elisa like this during the course of the series when she travels with the Manhattan Clan by air.

In Rick and Morty, Rick carries Morty's deactivated sexbot back to his lab in this way.

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) Bebop and Rocksteady sometimes carried April O'Neil like this when they kidnapped her, and one of the turtles would do this to her if they caught her after she fell from a high place.

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